THE DEMAND FOR YOUAs part of my role at the conference, I attended the Board meeting for the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation, where we discussed the industry's need for the next generation of leaders to be prepared in terms of deep skills in strategic planning, financial management, teamwork, leadership, supply-chain management, and the best practices of direct marketing as a foundation for interactive business.

With a scarcity of courses to prepare junior and middle managers for the demands of multi-channel marketing, and only Northwestern and Mercy College providing graduate programs similar to NYU's, every leader I spoke with over the past 5 days said that her/his company needs our graduates. So get your resume into the Resume Book that the DIMA is organizing, and be aware that you and your degree are sought after by the best companies to take their marketing to the next stages of growth.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CONFERENCESir Richard Branson's keynote address, in which he told the story of how he decided to diversify his entertainment business, Virgin Records, into Virgin Atlantic Airlines, and stressed the importance of using business for social responsibility, both ecological and philanthropic. It was refreshing and inspiring to see this legendary entrepreneur speak informally to an audience of several thousand about the need to understand the target audience and to give back to the planet and to those who are not able to share in the economic benefits of capitalism. His personal CVP of what he calls Business Adventure Capitalism is one that would be fun and challenging to apply to a Capstone topic.

Paula Sneed (Kraft Foods CMO)'s keynote address also stressed the importance of understanding the consumer. She noted that it's not enough to identify consumers by demographics and that consumer insights should be used to develop all aspects of the marketing plan. She attributed Kraft's success in leading initiatives online to its recent corporate push to break down the silos and be innovative in developing relationships between consumers and packaged-goods products.

As ECHO Committee members, we were photographed backstage with him. But for the highlights of creative awards winners, you are welcome to look at the ECHO Awards disk that I brought back, to see some amazing, groundbreaking campaigns in interactive, DRTV, and direct mail. For a complete list of winners, go to www.the-dma.org.

At the conference, I was especially pleased to see alumni from our program, including Fabian Robinson, who just moved from American Express to a database leadership role at Petsky Prunier, Juan Carlos Cardona from Latinvox, and Brian Catalano from Kraft.

--MK

Dr. Marjorie KalterGraduate Program DirectorClinical ProfessorMaster's Program in Direct and Interactive MarketingNew York University11 West 42nd StreetSuite 429New York, New York 100361-212-992-3207mk99@nyu.edu